Top Truck Challenge 101: Behind-The-Scenes Facts

Every event requires a fair amount of logistics to make it happen. You know, the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Top Truck Challenge (TTC) is no different. There’s a huge number of people that plug away all year long to make the weeklong TTC event run smooth and safe. One of the key people in the finely-tuned group is Event Coordinator Robin Stover. Stover’s first TTC was in 1998 when he was 20 years old. Employment in Ireland caused him to miss TTC 1999, but he returned in 2000 as the spotter for competitor Kevin Kaylin. In 2001, Stover returned to TTC to assist the competitors, but was quickly drafted as a judge’s assistant by then Head Judge Ned Bacon. In 2003, Stover was hired as a feature editor at Four Wheeler. “TTC is what attracted me to the magazine industry, and today I’m honored to be the point guy for organizing all logistical aspects of the event,” Stover says. He is currently employed as the service manager at Lavender Brothers Automotive/Triple-X Traction in Seaside, California, a company owned by TTC Head Judge Toby Lavender. He also owns Stover Logistics LLC.

Stover has a wealth of knowledge regarding behind-the-scenes info at TTC and he helped provide some interesting facts you may not know. Read on.

Stover leading a drivers meeting at Top Truck Challenge.

Fact: The telephone poles used in the Frame Twister are 18 to 25 inches in diameter and 25 feet in length. They are anchored more than 6 feet into the ground using a quarter-yard of concrete each.

Fact: The TTC Recovery Crew consists of 21 experts who have a combined 200-plus years of off-road recovery experience.

Fact: The TTC Safety Crew checks every vehicle prior to the first event. Each member has to sit in the driver seat while asking the vehicle’s owner questions about safety equipment such as the location of the fuel pump shut-off switch, parking brake lever, and fire extinguishers.

Fact: Over 90 labor-hours are spent prepping the courses for TTC’s seven events.

Fact: The count varies, but on average over the last couple years, support machinery and vehicles have included two bulldozers, two excavators, three water trucks (2,000- to 4,000-gallon capacity), a cement truck, a 5-ton wrecker, a Ford F-550 flatbed camera truck, a side-by-side, a steam cleaner trailer with two 2,500 psi stations, five judge’s rigs (for pre-running and extraction assistance), and one dump trailer.

Fact: The course crew puts in an average of a 12-hour day during each day of the event.

Fact: This year, the TTC staff will utilize over 31 two-way radios to help coordinate all aspects of the event.

Fact: Approximately 70 people make up the TTC support staff and they include judges, the recovery crew, the video production crew, and the Four Wheeler staff.